Public safety at what cost?
2nd July 2018 · 0 Comments
By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor
How steep a price would you be willing to pay for an effort to improve public safety in New Orleans?
Would you be willing to overlook being racially profiled, targeted, harassed and bullied by law enforcement officers with no ties to New Orleans and apparently very little concern for the constitutional rights of local residents? Would you be willing to overlook being viewed and treated like a dangerous criminal by officers from state and federal law enforcement agencies who could care less about the federal consent decree designed to bring the New Orleans Police Department up to federal standards for constitutional policing?
That’s essentially what Black men and boys have been facing in New Orleans and what we can expect this summer and beyond after news that the NOPD and the City of New Orleans are forging a partnership with the Louisiana State Police and various federal law enforcement agencies that will bring additional officers to the city to address violent crime.
You can expect more incidents like the assault on 17-year-old Sidney Newman and Ferdinand Hunt several years ago in the French Quarter. They were attacked by nearly a dozen plainclothes state troopers while standing in the Quarter after a Carnival parade and waiting for Hunt’s mother, NOPD Officer Betty Hunt, to bring them something to eat.
They hardly sound like menaces to society, by the way.
You can expect more attacks on local Black musicians like Shamarr Allen, who was roughed up and questioned by state troopers after a late-night gig in the French Quarter.
You can expect more incidents like the one involving Lyle Dotson, a teenage college student who visited New Orleans several years ago and was targeted, detained, knocked to the ground and photographed by Louisiana state troopers.
Then there was the local barber who was sitting in his car outside his barber shop when he was questioned and manhandled by state troopers responding to a report that there were Black men riding around in a car firing weapons.
Essentially, Black men and boys have to keep an eye open for civilian criminals on one hand and over zealous law enforcement officers on the other.
The worst part is that many of the city and state’s elected officials see nothing wrong with these additional officers trampling upon the constitutional rights of Black and poor people.
At the very least, elected officials should be reminding these law enforcement agencies that the NOPD is under a federal consent decree and that unconstitutional policing will not be tolerated in New Orleans from NOPD officers or groups that are being used to help out in the midst of the department’s manpower shortage.
The U.S. Attorney, state Attorney General and members of Congress, U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan and federal consent decree monitors need to make it crystal clear to these other law enforcement agencies that they are essentially subcontractors of the NOPD and as such will be held to the same standards as the city’s police department as it continues to implement reforms aimed at bringing the department up to federal standards for constitutional policing.
The New Orleans City Council needs to give the same kind of energy and enthusiasm to this issue that it brings to the immigrant issue at the Texas border and ongoing issues with Entergy New Orleans, the Sewerage & Water Board and short-term rentals.
During its last year in office, the Landrieu administration turned down an offer by state Attorney General Jeff Landrey to combat violent crime in New Orleans by bringing in law enforcement officers from across the state to bolster the NOPD’s ranks, in part because the administration said it would place residents’ constitutional rights in jeopardy.
You may recall that the debate over how best to improve public safety in New Orleans turned into a battle of crime initiatives with New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and NOPD Supt. Michael Harrison standing on one side of the issue and state AG Jeff Landry and Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro on the other.
What has changed that would now make it okay for these agencies to violate our constitutional rights on a regular basis?
Many of the members of the New Orleans City Council have said little to nothing about the previously mentioned incidents involving state troopers violating Black men and boys’ constitutional over the past few years but have the audacity to suggest that they represent the interests of the people of this city.
We need to demand answers and action from the council and give pink slips to those who can’t bring themselves to stand up for the constitutional rights of all of the people of New Orleans, not just those with ties to the business community and those who are politically connected.
We’re all for getting illegal guns and drugs off the streets of New Orleans but why can’t these additional law enforcement officers make arrests until they reach the street level? Why can’t they ever snag the big fish, the major gun and drug traffickers who have already pocketed their ill-gotten gains before these drugs and guns reach local neighborhoods?
The overwhelming majority of the Black people who live in this city are hard-working, law-abiding citizens who deserve to be treated as such by both law enforcement officers regardless of the agency they are a part of and local, statewide and federal elected officials.
How can anyone hope to improve public safety in this majority-Black city while making New Orleans such a hostile, unconstitutional environment for Black, Brown and poor people?
We deserve better and must demand better.
All power to the people.
This article originally published in the July 2, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
